In case you haven’t been paying attention, the victory by Donald Trump has resulted in more women making the decision to seek public office.

And if more women are participating in the political arena, it’s not necessarily because of any positive influence from the Trumpster. In some cases, it’s the indignity of seeing a misogynist in the nation’s highest office that has triggered women’s decision to run for office.

For ANDIE SAIZAN Andie Saizan, the idea of watching U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves as he obediently went along with virtually everything put forward by Trump was just too much.

The Holden Democrat was repulsed by Graves’s blind loyalty to Trump, including unconditional support of the NRA, proposals to scale back Medicaid/Medicare benefits, repeal of internet neutrality. And the treatment of children of illegal immigrants was just too much.

The 37-year-old mother of four is officially a candidate for the 6th District congressional seat now held by Graves.

She is part of the wave of women seeking public office, much of that being a reaction to Trump and his policies, said Jean Sinzdak of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Andrea Dew Steele, president and founder of Emerge America agrees. She says there was an “immediate uptick in interest in our work” following Trump’s election. “And it has persisted through today. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Since the 1971, the year before Watergate, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of female office holders. Statewide elected offices have seen an increase in women from about 7 percent in 1971 to a high of 28 percent in 2000. Today, females make up about 24 percent of statewide elective offices. That percentage is about the same for state legislatures.

During that same time period, the number of women in Congress has gone from about 3 percent in 1971 to 20 percent today.

Saizan acknowledges that hers is an uphill fight because of what she describes as the “good old boy system” that she says “needs to be taken out.”

And she knows a thing or two about overcoming stiff odds. “At the age of 24, I had two children and was pregnant with a third when my husband walked out on me. Working for the Continental Kennel Club, I didn’t have a high-paying job. But they stood with me and supported me.

“I was on food stamps and everyone was telling me I couldn’t go back to college, but I did.

“Republicans love to talk about welfare queens but because I fought the system and got an education, today I pay more in taxes every year than I ever took in food stamps.”

Saizan, who works in the computer industry, believes that everything elected officials do should be geared toward empowering people. “When we turn our backs on people in need, we cannot call ourselves Christians,” she says.

Her quest may not be as quixotic as it might appear at first glance. “Edwin Edwards, a convicted felon, received 40 percent of the vote against Graves,” she said. “He can be beaten and he can be beaten on his own record.”

Saizan doesn’t give all the credit for her decision to run to Trump. It was Graves himself, she says, who pushed her to run, albeit inadvertently.

“Garrett convinced me to run when he trashed Medicaid/Medicare,” she says. “If I can’t bring my child to the doctor when she’s sick, something’s wrong with the system. Healthcare is too important to treat as some sort of political football. We use public dollars for insurance companies to bet against the health of Americans, and that’s wrong. If there’s something wrong with the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care), then fix it, don’t abandon it for some political philosophy.”

She said she and Graves differ in their stands on guns. “We are gun-owners at our house. I’m pro-Second Amendment. But we need laws that sponsor responsible gun ownership. Garrett doesn’t want that.”

As for Graves’s stance on net neutrality, she says he “either misled voters or he doesn’t understand net neutrality. It’s far worse than simply slowing down internet service. Say, for example, you’re on a cruise ship. The cruise line can make internet service a-la cart so you have to buy a specific service provider—and they charge more for it.”

She fired a broadside at both Graves and former U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin when she said, “We must be able to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs.” Tauzin, a Democrat-turned-Republican from Lafourche Parish, as one of his last official acts as a member of Congress, pushed through a bill that prohibited the federal government from negotiating the prices of prescription drugs under Medicaid/Medicare.

Following that little coup, he promptly resigned and went to work as the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.

Saizan is particularly incensed at the manner in which the Trump administration has gone about separating children from their parents on the nation’s southern border. And she isn’t shy about expressing her contempt for the president. “Any man who would try and justify separating children from their mothers like this is simply a coward. This is immoral! It was wrong when Hitler did it and it’s wrong now!

“I am not for open borders but I do know that we can treat this situation in a more humane manner. The fact that this is what we have come to only reiterates that America needs comprehensive immigration reform without racial bias or classism.”

She said the Democratic Party is the “party of the people but we don’t get our message across.”

You may well be correct, but I would never handicap football or politics in this state. Right now, all the experts (and novices like myself) would have to give the nod to Graves as well as to Kennedy for governor. But the same was said of Vitter, if I recall. Just sayin.

1. Congressman Graves’ first name has only one “T” at the end. Easy to Google if you have doubts, yet it’s apparent you’ve never taken sufficient pride in your work to do so because I just searched your site and see it appears repeatedly throughout misspelled every time.

2. Nobody is “officially” a candidate until they file the paperwork to become one. That’s true even of incumbents. It would be accurate to say she’s declared her intent to become a full-fledged “official” candidate, but people have been known to change their minds on matters like that when they see just what all being an “official” candidate entails.

3. There is some other Democrat who has also stated he intends to run against Con. Graves. Should his candidacy be ignored in a stampede to rush females into office? This article would seem to come very close to inferring as much.

4. Edwin Edwards’ ghost would garner 35% of the vote in Louisiana. Maybe that’s good and maybe that’s bad, but I doubt anyone will argue the point. To suggest that a couple of rank armatures would stack up against a veteran who’d won statewide office (the highest office, no less) four times and be able to garner a similar vote as that “old pro” is, in a word, ludicrous.

5. Graves plays to WIN. Just ask Paul Dietzel!

6. Good luck to all Democratic challengers. You’ll sure as hell need it.

Here’s an observation from my end: amateur is not spelled “armatures.” And I didn’t even have to google it. (And don’t try to blame auto correct. It would have recognized the proper spelling and would have come into play only if you’d misspelled it some other way…like “amatures.”)

Also, I do plan to do a feature on the other Democrat who has announced his intentions.

Finally, don’t be so damned thin-skinned. It’s politics and it’ll probably get a lot dirtier than anything I’ve written before all is said and done. If you don’t lighten up a bit, you’ll give yourself a coronary before election day (or as a friend from Donaldsonville used to say, you’ll “catch a heart attack.”)

I believe there is always hope until we quit breathing. We just have to help hope along by voting in every election that we can. Our challenge is to vote responsibility for candidates that will actually represent our best interests. It is truly “a hard row to hoe” for some that depend on undependable sources for their decisions. Thanks for reminding us to hope and vote!

In case this ignorant woman who doesn’t seem to understand how private business works happens to check in here.” Say, for example, you’re on a cruise ship. The cruise line can make internet service a-la cart so you have to buy a specific service provider—and they charge more for it.” Yes they can There is NO internet service out in the middle of the ocean from your local carrier. There is internet and phone service on every little island you pass by. But if you have cruised before you also know that all the cruise lines strongly advise that you turn all devices off or to airplane mode to keep from having $5 + connection fees and $3-$4 per min. fees when that island sends you a 15 min. long “welcome message” .Sounds like someone took a cruise and got mad when they had to pay for slow internet. If you are this ignorant about something so easy to understand as the internet and private business . I really hope you don’t expect to get my vote.

I admire both contenders. I called Cong. Abraham, no answer left message, 5 minutes later I get a call from vetscoalition. inc. the computers are just great, and my current bitch against Abraham is I think I see a white cross on his lapel next to the US Flag. I may be wrong that is why I called his office. ron Thompson

wow look at vetscoalition, inc. the computer picked up I called Abraham, of course I am paranoid, but what fun. I would trust a democrat with a computer but not a fellow Christian, some are calling me a “trader” because I refuse to boycott a Peter Fonda movie. Maybe Abraham paid staff at the St. Francisville office hit the wrong button, Vetscoalition,inc may be too busy handling their clients at Homeland Security and HHS. ron thompson

Amazing, got a nice call back from Abraham’s office???No that is not a cross, it is a white section of the flag of La.( I didn’t get the call until after I posted comment).I still maintain he is using taxpayer funds for personal politics. I even got a letter at home from Kevin? Nunez from California .ron Thompson or current resident.

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